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Power outage in Nepal’s industrial sector ends

Kathmandu: Nepal has ended load-shedding in industrial sector one year after the country eradicated power outages to residential customers, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) said.

There would be no power cuts in industrial sector from Monday, the NEA, the only power utility body of Nepal, announced on Sunday evening in a press statement. Until Saturday, the industrial corridors were facing load-shedding of three hours a day.

The NEA’s move is expected to give huge relief to the industries as it would help them reduce cost of production due to round-the-clock power availability.

“We decided to end load-shedding formally due to rise in water level in the rivers boosting electricity production from the run-of-the river hydropower projects, managing available electricity better and increasing the import of electricity from India,” said NEA Managing Director Kulman Singh Ghising.

Peak hour demand for electricity in the country stands at 1300 MW, it said.

Until a few years ago, Nepal had witnessed load shedding up to 18 hours a day, affecting the normal life of people as well as industrial sector which heavily depended on expensive diesel plants to fuel their factories.

Since November 2016, Nepal first ended the load-shedding in Kathmandu Valley, other major cities and eventually all the country within a few months for residential customers while reducing the power cuts substantially for the industries.

Industrialists say that the situation has improved considerably since days of prolonged load-shedding in the country.

“The complete end to load-shedding from the industrial sector will help attract more investment from domestic and foreign investors,” Kishore Kumar Pradhan, vice-president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the apex private sector body of Nepal, said on Monday.